KYIV, Jan 9 – President Petro Poroshenko stressed the country's membership in the European Union and in NATO remain Ukraine's strategic goal, but this is not viable in 2018.

"Membership in the European Union, as well as joining NATO, certainly remain our strategic goal. Since this prospect is clearly not for 2018, and it is not up to us, as the Scripture says, to know the times and dates, I will only say that I firmly believe this will happen," the president said in the column in a special issue of the 'Novoye Vremia' (New Times) and 'The Economist World' published on Saturday.